Over the course of that game’s development, he says, the team size grew from just four people in a room to more than 30 people running a live, free-to-play service. The most rewarding aspect of my job is the challenge of creating fun for everyone.” His employers liked it so much they invited him to start sketching out concepts for some new types of plant and zombie creatures in his spare time, and he eventually joined on as one of the early developers for what would go on to become Plants vs. As part of the new user interface, Mark drew and animated a crow character that helps guide the player from screen to screen. “But when I went and interviewed I really thought, ‘Man, if they don’t hire me then it’s only because I blew it, because I am perfect for this place.’”įar from blowing it, he got the job and was immediately set to work on creating new art assets for a “Game of the Year” edition of Plants vs. “I got all my stuff together and just applied and had to compete against a number of my friends,’” Mark says. So when he later heard from a former DigiPen instructor and PopCap employee that the company was hiring for a new artist position at their Seattle headquarters, he jumped at the opportunity. “The humor and the creativity - everything just really appealed to me.” “I just felt like every inch of it was so well loved and so well designed,” Mark says. Zombies.”įor Mark, it was the game he wished he could have made - a near-perfect distillation of fun, quirkiness, and attention to detail that helped him appreciate what smaller-scale games could achieve. And through working there, they introduced me to Plants vs. “It really opened the world of casual games to me. “They were making casual games for the iPhone, and that was kind of new at the time,” Mark says. Then, when a classmate invited him to join a small Seattle startup, he took a chance on something new.
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He even landed his first professional job as a contract artist at Nintendo Software Technology. Upon graduating as the Class of 2008 valedictorian from DigiPen’s BFA in Digital Art and Animation program, Mark says he had his mind set on working in the triple-A game industry. “It’s really hard! But I love working with great people and figuring out new ways to make people smile.” “The most rewarding aspect of my job is the challenge of creating fun for everyone,” Mark says. Now in his sixth year at the company, he currently works on a group known as PopLabs, a research and development team that works to create the next big thing at PopCap - be it sequel, spinoff, or brand new intellectual property. Zombies, DigiPen graduate Mark Barrett’s work has been seen and enjoyed by millions of people around the world. Information for Teachers and CounselorsĪs a senior artist at PopCap Games, makers of popular titles like Bejeweled, Peggle, and Plants vs.
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